QYS and StreetSmarts Launch Youth Road Safety Activation at Cowboys Gameday

The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys, in partnership with matchday sponsor StreetSmarts and the Townsville City Council, will host a youth road safety community activation at Queensland Country Bank Stadium this Sunday.

The initiative will see regional non-profit organisation Queensland Youth Services (QYS) take control of the stadium’s dedicated Community Corner precinct prior to the NRL clash between the Cowboys and the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

StreetSmarts, the Queensland Government’s flagship road safety education program, surrendered its allocated commercial gameday activation space to grant QYS a free promotional platform to interface with the regional sporting demographic.

Commenting on the program, QYS LearnIT team leader, Tamara Purdie, said: “Community Corner is an exciting opportunity for Queensland Youth Services and the LearnIT program to connect with the wider community, promote the importance of road safety and showcase the incredible impact mentoring can have on young people.”

“StreetSmarts has been an incredible supporter of the program, helping us continue delivering meaningful road safety education,” Purdie said.

Expressing his enthusiasm about the program, Townsville Mayor, Nick Dametto, added: “Safe drivers make our streets and community safer, so it’s great to see Queensland Youth Services promoting its LearnIT program during National Road Safety Week, helping our young drivers build safer habits,” Dametto said.

Interactive Mentoring and Regional Road Metrics

The community pop-up is scheduled to run from gates opening at 1:30 pm until kick-off at 4:05 pm. The center-piece of the interactive fan activation is the QYS LearnIT driving simulator, a mobile high-performance educational tool designed to simulate dangerous driving conditions and test user reaction times in a controlled setting.

The activation serves several targeted operational and corporate objectives:

• National Road Safety Week Alignment: The gameday event aligns with National Road Safety Week, a national campaign highlighting road trauma metrics across Australia, where approximately 1,300 fatalities and 40,000 serious injuries are recorded annually.
• Volunteer Mentor Recruitment: QYS administrators will use the heavy fan foot traffic to recruit licensed volunteer driving mentors.
• Barriers to Mobility: The underlying LearnIT program explicitly assists disadvantaged regional youth who lack access to a supervising driver or a registered vehicle, systematically helping them log their required 100 supervised hours to secure employment and educational independence.

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